You are here

Ammi Willard and Anna Case Wright House

-A A +A
1886–1887, Spier and Rohns. 503 N. State St.
  • (Detroit Publishing Company Collection, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

Having amassed a fortune in the Ammi Wright Lumber Company, which held thirty thousand acres of timberland in Gladwin, Clare, and Roscommon counties and was one of the largest to operate in the Saginaw Valley, Ammi Willard Wright (1822–1912) came to Alma in 1884. Two years later he built for himself and his second wife, Anna Case, this large stone house designed by Detroit architects Spier and Rohns, who were noted for their designs for railroad depots. The boxy Richardsonian Romanesque building of randomly coursed rock-faced Ionia sandstone rests on a Vermont granite foundation. From it project gables, bays, and porches ornamented with balustrades, columns, and carved and checkerworked sandstone. The hipped roof is covered with clay tile. The house had the modern conveniences of hot and cold running water, gas lighting, and was wired for the future use of electricity. The chimneys and the porte-cochere have been removed. G. S. Young of Alma supervised its construction. Wright helped the burgeoning city of Alma in the 1880s by building a hotel, an opera house, and a sanitarium. He also invested in the sugar refinery, other manufacturing companies, banks, and railroads, and contributed to Alma College, the Masons, and the city. The handsome stone house says something about the strength of the character of this mid-Michigan capitalist. Today the house may face demolition by neglect.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Kathryn Bishop Eckert
×

Data

What's Nearby

Citation

Kathryn Bishop Eckert, "Ammi Willard and Anna Case Wright House", [Alma, Michigan], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/MI-01-GR4.

Print Source

Cover: Buildings of Michigan

Buildings of Michigan, Kathryn Bishop Eckert. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012, 369-370.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,